Temple Hillel B'nai Torah

Rabbi Emerita Barbara Penzner

Rabbi Penzner retired in June 2023 after 28 years of serving as HBT’s Rabbi.

Rabbi Barbara Penzner served Temple Hillel B'nai Torah in West Roxbury, MA beginning in 1995. During her time with HBT, she brought in younger families, invigorated our prayer life with spirituality and depth, enriched intellectual engagement for all ages, and inspired us to act justly in the world.

Rabbi Penzner received the degree of rabbi and a Master of Hebrew Letters from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia in 1987. She is active in the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, the national association of Reconstructionist rabbis, and served as its President. She has also served as President of the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis. Rabbi Penzner is active in Greater Boston's Jewish community and in interfaith work, including leadership of Mayyim Hayyim: Living Waters Mikveh and Education Center in Newton, the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, the Jewish Community Relations Council, and the Jewish Labor Committee.

Her writings on topics including Israel-Diaspora relations, mikveh (ritual immersion) as a meaningful ritual for Jews today and adult Jewish learning have been published in various journals and books.

In addition to her Jewish interests, she is an avid Red Sox fan and a follower of Bruce Springsteen. She has lived in Jerusalem twice, once for a year and again for two years. She was born in New York and grew up in the suburbs of Kansas City. She and her husband, Brian Rosman, work together on social justice causes, and are the proud parents of two children, Aviva and Yonah, who are now adult activists.

Highlights

• Labor: Rabbi Penzner now serves as co-chair of the New England Jewish Labor Committee, and serves on the JCRC Council as a representative of the JLC. She leads the annual Jewish Labor Seder which brings together labor leaders and Jewish community leaders to celebrate Pesach as a holiday that can inspire us to support workers' rights. http://newenglandjewishlabor.org/ Rabbi Penzner has also contributed to the JLC blog, Kolot: http://www.kolotproject.net

• Human Rights: In 2011, Rabbi Penzner was among the first #TomatoRabbis to visit Immokalee, Florida to meet with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. www.ciw-online.org She continues to serve as a member of the Faith Working Group of the Alliance for Fair Food, the partners and allies who support the work of the CIW. www.allianceforfairfood.org/

• Thanks to her work with the CIW and her leadership of the movement on behalf of the Hyatt 100, a group of hotel workers who were summarily fired from their jobs in 2009, T'ruah, the Rabbinic Voice for Human Rights, named her a Rabbinic Human Rights Hero.

• Awards and Honors: Rabbi Penzner serves on the Council of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston. In 2016, the JCRC awarded her the prestigious Warren B. Kohn Award for Excellence in Jewish Communal Service. http://www.jcrcboston.org/

• In 2012, Mayor Tom Menino invited her to give the invocation to his (last) State of the City address at Faneuil Hall. In 2015, she also gave the invocation at the inaugural dinner for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the Senate, in Dorchester. https://www.emkinstitute.org/

• Watch the video of Rabbi Penzner offering the benediction at Mayor Menino's 19th State of the City address, held at Faneuil Hall on Tuesday night, January 17, 2012. She is the first rabbi the mayor has invited to participate in the State of the City.  Watch the video here---Rabbi Penzner's benediction starts at about minute 7.  Read the text here.

• Click here to watch the video of the Rabbis for Human Rights Rabbinic Human Rights Hero Award ceremony for Rabbi Penzner.

• Read Rabbi Penzner's Opinion Piece: The True Light of Chanukah in the West Roxbury Patch

• Rabbi Penzner receives Honorary Doctorate from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College

Rabbi Penzner’s Sermon Archive